


Unexpected

by Miriadel_theRogue



Category: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-12
Updated: 2014-03-12
Packaged: 2018-01-15 10:58:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1302376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miriadel_theRogue/pseuds/Miriadel_theRogue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lizzie's stuck at home under orders to stay on bed rest, from both her doctor and William.  The experience is quite boring until she gets a series of surprises that melt her heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unexpected

**Author's Note:**

> This one-shot was written May 8th, 2013; therefore it was written post series. It also takes place post series.

Do you ever have one of those days? Not one where you embarrass yourself in front of your senior crush or find twenty dollars and get a ticket, and especially not one where you think your life is finally looking up and then there’s another kink to prove what’s really important. No, the kind of day where you are bored out of your mind because your doting husband is taking the whole “bed rest” thing a little too seriously so he took your laptop, your Kindle, your iPod, and set parental controls on your phone so all you can do is call or text. No internet. Overkill in Lizzie’s opinion but William had justified it all by reminding her the doctor said she was supposed to be resting and they both knew if she had any of those things she would not be able to keep herself from working. She knew the only reason she still had her phone at all was because he wanted her to be able to contact him if she needed and even he could not come up with a technology to only connect her phone to his office but not hers.

So here Lizzie was, snuggled up in bed, surrounded by books and magazines ( _those_ William had allowed) with the television on as background noise. Day nine of solitary confinement.

Okay, she admitted, it wasn’t all bad. Sure the first few days had been nice and relaxing and Lizzie relished that she could sleep all day and no one judge her, expected it even. But the novelty wore off after a few days and she itched for company and well, _her_ company. For a busy person like Lizzie, she wondered if the strain of having to stay in bed was worse than say renting a wheelchair and staying off her feet that way or reminding William of the benefits of telecommuting.

“You’d think he’d be all for telecommuting,” she told her protruding stomach. “He does it all the time. We wouldn’t have met if he hadn’t been telecommuting.” If the baby in her belly heard her, he stayed quiet. Lizzie hardly minded, he tended to be as restless as she was and they were each other’s constant company. “You know what,” she said. Rolling over, Lizzie pulled out the middle drawer of the bedside table, digging around until she came up with a small notebook and a pen. “We’ll just have to plan out our attack!”

This time the baby heard, spurring her on with a hard kick. “Yeah,” she said. “Don’t do that too much or Daddy’ll leave us here until you’re an adult and I’m old and gray.”

The sound of a door opened somewhere. Lizzie looked up, slightly confused and found her phone among the scattered paper trail but saw no missed messages. Her first reaction was to get up to meet whoever had let themselves in, but she knew if it was William she would come face to face with his look of disconcerted worry and she would lose any leverage on the telecommuting subject.

“Lizzie?” the visitor called out.

“Sabrina?” she asked. “Is that you?”

Sabrina, Lizzie’s short, blonde secretary appeared in the open doorway laden with bags. “How’s it going?” she asked. Inviting herself inside, Sabrina set the bags down on the floor and found a spot on the bed next to Lizzie.

“We’re antsy,” Lizzie said.

“Are you talking about yourself in the second person?” teased the young girl.

“No!” Lizzie said, trying to regain control. “The baby and I are antsy.” She gestured to her belly a few times. “Besides, I haven’t had many people to talk to lately.”

“What about Mr. Darcy?”

Lizzie sighed. “Meetings. He checks in when he can.”

“Ah.” Sabrina smiled, nearly as well versed in William’s protective tendencies as Lizzie.

“Did something come up at the office?” Lizzie asked hopefully. “Do you need my help?”

“Nope,” Sabrina said brightly, smirking at Lizzie’s defeated sigh. “Besides, I would have called.” Sabrina checked her watch and bent over to the bags. “I came to bring you this.” She passed Lizzie a plastic bag.

Unwrapping it, Lizzie gasped in delight at the tub of strawberry ice cream. “How did you know?” Ripping off the lid, Lizzie laughed when Sabrina handed over a spoon as well.

“A birdie told me.”

“William called you,” she corrected through a large mouthful of ice cream.

Sabrina winked. “He said his late afternoon meeting was cancelled so he should be home soon, so I better give you these.” She pulled out a set of files, giving them to Lizzie like government secrets.

“You’re the best!” Lizzie said flipping through some files from her office. With ice cream and work, her day was looking up.

She noticed there were still a lot of bags on the floor. “What are those?”

Sabrina’s smirk was discomforting. “Do you remember when Gigi tweeted about switching her lunch plans because you were on bed rest?”

“Yes?” Lizzie asked suspiciously.

“It seems your old viewers wanted to send their compliments on the baby.” To explain, Sabrina tipped over one of the bags, spilling presents and packages onto Lizzie’s lap.”

“Are these all...”

“Yeah. They’ve been showing up at the office and Pemberley for a week now. My car’s full.”

Lizzie, completely stunned, looked at all the gifts. “Why?”

“Probably because they miss you. You touched their lives.”

“Stop it,” Lizzie said, dabbing at her eyes. “My hormones are on the fritz.”

“Speaking of…” Sabrina leaned over again, dragging up a large box and a card. “I found this care package from Fitz among them all and this is from Charlotte.”

Tearing open the card, Lizzie read the hand written letter.

_Since you’re more grounded of late, you probably don’t know the inter-web surge caused by Gigi’s big mouth and the resulting frenzy from our old viewers. I can’t wait to hear what they sent you! Your Bestie! Charlotte_

“Leave it to Charlotte to be entirely unhelpful when it comes to letting me in on what the viewers are up to,” groaned Lizzie.

Laughing, Sabrina stood up. “I’m going to grab another load, maybe two or three and then I’ve got to head back to the office.”

“Don’t leave me!” whined Lizzie.

“You won’t be alone; the boss man will be home soon.”

“He isn’t _your_ boss,” stated Lizzie.

“He is when it comes to taking care of you. He’s really intimidating when he wants to be.”

“Yeah, I know,” Lizzie said as Sabrina left.

It took Sabrina two more trips to get all the bags and boxes inside. They ranged from large to small and covered every inch of the huge bed that Lizzie was not already occupying. After a hurried goodbye, Lizzie and company were left alone again, alone with more presents than Christmas morning.

After about ten seconds, Lizzie’s resistance wore completely through. Grabbing the closest package, Lizzie set it on her belly and read the packaging where her name was. “I’m just gonna open one,” she said even though she knew it was a lie and tore it open.

In the tissue paper was a note: _Lizzie and Darcy, Congrats on your baby!_ Beneath that, Lizzie burst out laughing. A black baby onesie with a tiny red bow tie.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~******~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An hour later, William closed the front door behind him, hurriedly setting down his things in the foyer, hanging his coat in the closet, and placing his keys on the hook beside the door.

The place was empty and felt oddly unfilled. Since Lizzie had moved in there had always been a sense of welcoming the place had lacked before but with her sequestered in the bedroom, the rest of the house missed her personal touch. It was enough to make him think maybe they could take a break from bed rest, only long enough to give life back to the rest of their home. His neat tendencies did not feel quite as comforting as they used to.

From the bedroom he heard Lizzie’s laughter. Smiling, he headed that direction.

Before she noticed him, he had a few moments to unabashedly observe her. The bed covered in presents only confused him temporarily before he was distracted by the way she was smiling. 

“Hey there,” she beamed directly at him. “Thanks for the ice cream.”

“You’re welcome,” he strode over to the bed and kissed the top of her head. Lizzie grabbed his tie, yanking him down for a real kiss.

“I’ve been aching to do that,” she whispered.

“Really?” His voice was a little breathy. “Why?”

Laughing again, Lizzie pushed aside some empty boxes so she could pull him to sit next to her. “Look what we got today.”

“What is all this?” he asked, taking in the boxes and paper.

“About a week ago, Gigi posted that I was on bed rest on Twitter and well,” Lizzie waved her hands out over the bounty.

“I don’t understand,” said William.

Shaking her head, Lizzie lifted one hand to cup his jaw. His eyes were on her when she placed something on top of his head. Reaching up, he pulled down a brown, newsie cap, much smaller than he remembered. “It goes with this,” Lizzie added. On top of the hat she dropped a tiny, pre-knotted bow tie.

“Is this…?”

“Apparently the fans thought we needed your entire wardrobe but baby sized.” Lizzie held up a onesie with suspenders and a black bow tie. “It’s all a little more adorable than yours but just as charming.”

William sorted through the mess on the bed, finding baby sized vests, onesies with ties painted on, more hats, even a set of bibs with little bow ties at the top. Someone had even managed to find a blue plaid bow tie reminiscent of the old costume theatre Lizzie shirt.

“I had no idea…”

“The fans cared so much?” finished Lizzie. “I know, I mean, look at this!”

“No,” he leaned over to kiss her head, laying the newsie cap on her belly and skimming his index finger around it. “I knew they cared. I didn’t know they made clothes like this for infants.”

“Well now we know.” Lizzie pulled him closer, draping his arm around her shoulders and cuddled against him. “There’s no need to be so tense, Will. The fans may be rabid but they’ve got good hearts.”

“It’s not that,” he said. Still tracing his finger around the hat, he felt the smile pulling at his lips. “These gifts make everything feel so real.”

Lizzie laughed, melting his heart. “I don’t know, it feels pretty real every time our son kicks me in the belly.”

William pulled her chin up for a long kiss. “I love when you say ‘our son’.”

“Well,” Lizzie said, doing that thing where she stroked her fingers up and down his tie, drawing him in with her eyes. “ _Our_ son is going to be one dapper gentleman.” He kissed her again, hugging her as close as he could.

“Will?” she asked between kisses. “Is it economically smart or just wrong of me to think about dropping a hint to the viewers for our next baby?”

There was so much in her question he had no clue where to begin so William just kissed her.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, thank you to the illustrious Stef, who finds my errors and points them out to me. Whether or not I listen is another story.  
> For the general audience, I am slowly working through my extensive collection of written fics and trying to get them posted. The list keeps growing as my ideas have not stopped and the smaller pieces that take less time to edit come first.


End file.
